Video

Central and western North Dakota are under moderate to severe drought conditions. This week in Weather Extra Ryan goes to a local Golf course to see how the lack of snow and rain this year affects the turf. We are an inch and a half down from our normal amount of precipitation since January first this year. The difference from this time last year...almost four inches. So what does that mean for places like Hawktree golf course? Brown grass and a lot of watering to do. (Eric Stromstad/Hawktree Course Superintendent)Well, we cover them with sand in the fall then we come back and uncover them right away in the spring, get all the sand off the green and as soon as we've got them cleaned up I have guys truck in water to get those crowns as wet as we can. Over the winter...sand covering the grasses helps to protect them from the harsh winter cold. And snow on top of that helps keep the ground wet. This year has been exceptionally dry. Winter snows were 30 inches short of a normal value for this year with only 19 inches of the white stuff hitting the ground since last fall. But precipitation isn't the only factor in how green your greens are...wind plays a role as well. Looking at this one its one of the ones we didn't actually cover. It came out really good back here where we had some snow cover and going up to the front of it, its a bit rougher but I think there is a little bit more wind... When the pin wiggles around in the cup...it's not just a good excuse for a bad tee shot, but it also makes the ground moisture evaporate faster. Which makes the fairways look more like the European golf courses. We're going to look more like the British open for a while than the Masters but it kind of forces us to get that irrigation on a little bit quicker than we'd lie to. With dry conditions still in store, the course will be relying on irrigation and grounds crews watering down the greens to bring them back to life when the season really starts to heat up. If you have any ideas or questions for the next weather extra you can log on to www.kxnet.com/weatherextra and send an e-mail to weather12@kxnet.com